


Luminous

by Katschusa



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe: Planet Vegeta Exists, Explicit Language, F/M, Falling In Love, Goddammit Goku put away the orange color you moron, I am sorry dear citizens of Horn City, No Smut, Not really human AU, Romance, vegeta going makeup artist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-10-13 08:30:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20579543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katschusa/pseuds/Katschusa
Summary: When Vegeta moved to west city he wanted to work in his old field again: Event management. But who would've guessed that his experiences would be so different, compared to north?





	1. Prime

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, Katschusa here with my first ever posted fanfic (I have a bunch I am working on parallely, so this isn’t exactly the first one). Also I am no native english speaker, so if anything feels off, please let me know!
> 
> This started out as a silly idea of Vegeta as Makeup Artist and I hope you like it lol
> 
> I‘m posting new chapters every Monday, so you can enjoy your Makeup Monday the next 4 weeks.
> 
> Special thanks to Dianae from the Vegebulocracy Discord for Beta

* * *

When the black van came to a halt, he got off from the passenger's seat side. North City was the center of fashionable excellence. He used to set up fashion shows with his crew all the time. All kinds of events regarding haute couture, pret a porter and other styles. Only the creme de la creme would attend to those happenings. They were exclusive, of course. 

And Vegeta had seen them all. 

But here, everything was different. West City had a reputation that wasn't quite as chic, but still a strong influence on the people: science. More specifically, inventions. And the most powerful contributions were made by Capsule Corporation. 

Every person on earth had at least one CC device at home, if not a home made by CC. Their products were fundamental for the society of modern age. And of course, they also sold some expensive products, but it neither was as niche, nor as exclusive as designer pieces. 

"Come on, shove your ass over here and get those boxes here ASAP." Vegeta heard a long haired man scream from the CC's entrance. He wore a complete white tux and his face was marked with a scar on his cheek. Vegeta snapped out of his thoughts and walked to the back of the van where his bald buff coworker was already unloading the boxes. 

Who was he kidding? 

He was just a better furniture packer. He didn't know anything about fashion and the like, except what he picked up from people talking while setting up the stage. He also didn't understand anything about science. He just knew that these events were more about catering than anything else. 

So they had to prepare the hall and dining room for the gala, whatever it was about. Something big, someone told him but he couldn't quite remember. He also didn't care. As long as this job filled his fridge, he was fine with it. 

The CC‘s main hall was already filled to the brim with people. The event wouldn‘t start for at least another two hours but still everyone was hurrying and acting like it could start any minute. Set up, catering, decoration, sound engineers, lighting. Everything was in the making. 

Vegeta carried three big, clear plastic boxes stacked in his arms, following the scarred man, who snapped his fingers demandingly, „Listen up now, these should go to the backstage." 

Really? This was a frickin‘ science gala and there was a backstage? Scientists were as extra as designers, apparently. 

Vegeta‘s thoughts drifted away as the man in front of him started screaming, "Where the hell are the Make-up artists? Get them the fuck here NOW, or else someone‘s head‘s rolling!" 

Whoever he was and whatever he had to say, he was as charming as a mace. Just pack the stuff and get the hell out of here.

Prince charming was leading him to the ‚backstage‘ which wasn‘t actually in the back of the stage but some designated corridor with behind the scenes action. From here a dark haired boy and a blonde girl were monitoring the light and sound via watching the stage on different screens, flipping some controls here and turning some attenuators there. They probably just sat there to look important, because they were more talking and drinking coffee than anything else. 

"Put them down there. The tables over here are for snacks for our celebrities. We need some more lighting over there, so get the lamps from the van. And to brighten this room even more, organize some plants. This room looks too clean. Bring it to life!" with these words he left the room. 

Yeah, sure. He always carried some plants in his pocket.

When the scarred man turned around, Vegeta grabbed his right pocket and flipped the middle finger to the man when he pulled the hand back out again. Getting fired was a plausible option, instead of dealing with scum like that.

Vegeta then started unpacking the boxes. They were filled with smaller boxes with the CC logo on them, which contained a flock of capsules. He took one of the labeled capsules, pushed the button on the top and a small shelf popped up. 

While he was filling it up with plates, he heard a commotion at the other side of the room. "Awww Miss! You look so gorgeous! We are not worthy of your presence!" 

As these underlings went on with their hollering, a woman entered the room. She had a slim figure and legs so long, she could‘ve been a model. She was too short for modeling, of course, but she wasn‘t less stunning. Her blue eyes were only overwhelmed by her wavy hair of teal color, falling down like waterfalls on her shoulders. 

He didn‘t know that this color actually naturally existed in this world but she was the living evidence. 

But with all these gorgeous girls, the problem was that they always had an arrogance, almost poisoning the people around them. Vegeta already learned in North that those girls were nice to look at, but nothing more. He dismissed any thoughts of her, going back to his actual work.

"Guys, please. Whatever you think you‘re gaining with kissing my ass, just don‘t."

And there it was. Diva attitude at it‘s finest. Just do your thing, ignore it. 

"Ah, yes, of course, Miss! Follow me, please, your makeup artists already prepared the equipment, just for you!" 

Divas were annoying but he hated these bootlickers even more.

Dude, they don‘t care about your efforts. Cut the crap already. 

Vegeta started to move around the snack area to have a better layout, for using the space more efficient. To everyone's bother, he also started to rearrange the rest of the props. Inefficient placing was a thorn in his eyes. He just had to fix it. 

Tables were pushed, mirrors moved and even people were grabbed by the shoulders, shoving them to their new destination. His stone cold expression intimidated the people so much, nobody dared to snap at him. He described his resting bitch face as his best quality. He could work without any interference, because most people avoided him, or were just too scared to talk to him. 

While he was on his mission, the teal-haired woman sat down at the makeup table her bootlicker brought her to. The makeup artist was a tall slim man with long blonde hair, parted in the middle and tied up to a low ponytail. 

He started applying the base. Adding primer here, brushing on foundation there, loose powder, baking, the whole nine yards. Vegeta was confused how long it took, considering that her skin was already almost flawless. 

The moment the artist turned around to get another product, Vegeta grabbed the woman by her shoulders, „Pardon me." he said with unchanging expression, moving her to stand up and taking her chair to the other side of the room. 

He didn‘t care, if she‘d freak out, threaten him to call his manager. He knew his job and he knew he did it well. Even if nobody asked for it. 

But no sound came from the woman, just widening her eyes at him at he relocated her, bringing the other props, little by little, making the makeup artist wonder where everything was disappearing to, until he was shoved at his new place too. 

As Vegeta placed the mirror back on the table in front of them, he took the time to actually look into the woman‘s face, widening his eyes in shock. Whatever this guy did, he made her look like a mid fifty cougar never missing on her weekly botox session. 

He swallowed a big dry lump in his throat, trying to not say anything insulting. He normally didn‘t care but even he knew that commenting on a woman‘s appearance should not be taken lightly. Vegeta turned around, caring for his own business, working on the room‘s layout. 

The makeup artist went on with his procedure, swooning over his pick of colors, "Oh, believe me, this will look stunning on you! Purple is totally your color! This will go so well with your heavenly blue eyes, I swear! We then add some silver metallic highlights to contrast the color! Oh think of it, it will be so gorgeous!" 

Vegeta cringed with the imagination of his description. Was he really about to ruin her natural colors with overpowering with another vibrant one? 

He scanned the products laid out on the table and the moment the guy turned around, he cleared his throat audibly, making the woman look up to him. He pushed an eyeshadow palette in front of her, pointing to a light shimmering apricot color, hoping she would get the drift. He then moved on, as if he was just passing by. 

Her makeup artist turned around again, loading his blending brush, as she intervened, "Uhm. I made up my mind. I don‘t feel the purple, you know?" the man looked at her, dumbstruck, "How about we go with a more… natural color, like… this apricot? How about that?" 

"Well, of course Miss, but…" 

She cut him off, "No protest! I decided!"

If he was being honest, the look was already ruined with this mask like base but he wanted to prevent her from looking like a clown in the end. Even an arrogant Diva didn‘t deserve to be slaughtered like this. He was already surprised, she would take the hint and decided to actually go with it. Maybe she wasn‘t completely lost. 

"Oh Miss, excellent choice! These colours look stunning on you! You really have a great eye! I never doubted your expertise, your natural talent, your," 

She stood up from her chair, walking in another direction "Yeah, whatever." she waved as she let the man go on with his swooning over her. 

"Hey, you, spiky Boy!" Vegeta knelt in front of the boxes, starting to put everything together as he heard that woman‘s voice pointing in his direction. 

He stood up but didn‘t turn around to face her. Looking over his shoulder was enough to confirm that it was actually him, she referred to as ‚spiky boy‘. That nickname was obviously linked to his electric hair pointing straight up in the air, as if there was no gravity on earth. 

"What‘s your name?" 

He finally turned around, answering, "Well, definitely not spiky boy." 

Vegeta started stacking the boxes again, about to leave with them as she spoke again, 

"Fine, I guess I just call you Spike then." he heavily rolled his eyes and started moving towards the exit. "You have a good eye for colors, boy! How come?" 

"I have no idea what you‘re talking about." he went on without even looking at her. None of her god damn business. 

"Oh come on, you were literally showing me what colors I should choose!" 

"I just came to pass by that moment as I was moving the props." 

The woman raised her eyebrow with a playful smirk on her lips. "Yes, sure. Whatever you say, Spike." 

She was really pulling that nickname thing through, wasn‘t she? What the hell was this woman? 

He tried ignoring her, but her pace quickened up and she stood right in front of him, pushing against the boxes so he would have to stop. 

"Now would you finally wait and listen to me?" 

Vegeta looked up from behind the boxes, actually looking her in the eyes. That apricot color suit her so well, it totally compensated the horrible base, making the look more complete. The execution was still disastrous but he was right with giving a hint to that color. The complementary contrast made her eyes shine even brighter, like blue oceans flickering in the morning sun. 

Realising he was actually staring at her, he snapped, "What?!" 

The smirk on her face grew even wider "I wanna hire you." 

"Excuse you?" 

She started explaining, "Well, you seem to have more intuition on this, than my specially hired makeup artist for today, so I was asking myself if YOU aren‘t just as capable "

He pitied that woman. She obviously suffered from severe brain damage. That was the only explanation for blabbering so much nonsense. 

"What I am able of doing is none of your business." He tried to walk passed her but no matter which direction he tried to walk, she was already blocking the way. 

"Whatever your boss pays, I pay you more." 

Vegeta perked up, looking suspiciously into the woman‘s eyes "I don‘t think you can pay enough to compensate me being bothered by-„ 

"I pay you double." She cut him off, catching Vegeta off guard. 

"… I.. you… What?!" 

"Triple." 

The woman‘s sudden boost left him completely dumbstruck.

Where exactly was she getting all that money from? But as long as his salary comes steady, why would he care?

"Deal." Vegeta let the boxes fall ungently to the ground to his left. 

"Get here at eight a.m. tomorrow and we‘ll settle any further concerns." the woman demanded. 

"Fine" he replied. She turned around, walking down the corridor for the stage as she looked back one last time. 

"By the way, you can call me Bulma." 

Vegeta snorted, "Whatever, woman."

_________

He was no fool. 

It was not like he got an offer from a stranger and he just took it without a safety net. So he took a day off from his actual work to check out the situation. He would not quit his job without any confirmation about its credibility. 

But first, coffee. 

He went to the kiosk at the corner where he got his coffee and newspaper everyday. That was part of his routine. He took a sip from his coffee, folding the newspaper so he could read the articles on his way to the CC when he suddenly choked on his coffee.

HEIRESS CARRIES ON THE LEGACY the headline said with a picture of this woman pasted underneath it, that was obviously taken that evening before. That woman was the actual fucking heiress of the CC?? No surprise she had money to throw. Especially now, that she actually inherited the company of her father. 

He threw away his coffee cup into the nearest trash bin, grabbing his phone from his buttpocket, quickly dialing a number, "I quit."

* * *


	2. Define

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to chapter 2! 
> 
> Things are slowly heating up in the Makeup Fandom.
> 
> Thanks everyone a bunch for your feedback so far! I hope you’ll like how things are developing.
> 
> Again thanks for Dianae for Beta reading!

* * *

"Get here at 8, she said. We‘ll settle anything further, she said." Vegeta complained to himself, looking at his watch showing half past 8 already. Celebrities always thought they could do anything they wanted. But he won‘t play that game. As soon as she showed up he‘s gonna drag her over the coals. 

"There you are Spike!" speaking of the devil, there she was. 

"Oh yes, I‘m sorry! I was probably hard to find at the fucking RECEPTION of your OWN fucking company." 

Vegeta folded his arms in front of his chest, leaning forward right in front of her face with narrowed eyes when the woman started giggling, "I‘m sorry! You know, it got pretty late yesterday and I‘m horrible with getting up early in general. I tried my best to not get even later."

Now that she mentioned it, she was actually dressed way more casual than yesterday with a plain green T and loose bootcut jeans with some working boots in the same green hue as her shirt. To top it off she wore a white lab coat and a ultramarine headband to hold back her wild mane. She apparently really tried to hurry as she noticed she was running late. Else she probably wouldn‘t show herself in that state.

"Anyways," she started again as Vegeta loosened up, "Why don’t we settle business matters and then I’ll show you around?" 

Vegeta looked at the woman suspiciously. "So we just make a contract or what?" She might have had the money and it wasn’t like he didn’t already quit his job and he needed this one, but he couldn’t believe she was not even asking for any qualification. 

"Sure, why not?" 

He stepped back, crossing his arms tighter, "What game are you playing, woman?" She began smirking, raising a hand in front of her mouth to cover her smile. Of course she wasn’t fooling anyone with that. 

"I see, not only your hair is spiky, huh?" She moved towards him, laying her hand on Vegeta’s folded wrist, instantly making him unfold his arms. But he did not pull his arm away from her grasp, to his own surprise. "Come on, we just grab a snack and talk about everything. Don’t be afraid." She began dragging him behind her, baffling him with her words. 

"I’m never afraid." he muffled under his breath with a frown. He let her lead him with her hand holding his. 

Well, she was his new boss after all. Better not disrespect her, right? 

_________

He had never seen a female eat as much as Bulma Briefs. It probably was easy to indulge in such luxury when money didn’t matter. Having a personal chef cooking everything you wanted was surely also helping. 

"You sure you don’t want more? You can wish for anything. Just make yourself at home!" 

Vegeta was suspicious.

Why the hell was she so goddamn friendly? 

"No, thanks. I‘m fine." He was not. He only had a coffee this morning and he didn‘t trust the whole situation yet. He could eat a shitload more but he didn’t want to seem rude. Well, he was rude all the time but he didn‘t want to overdo it because of food. There were enough opportunities he couldn‘t hold back his harsh personality. He could still eat later.

"Sure. Whatever you say, Spike." 

She wouldn‘t so soon stop calling him that, would she? 

"Then I guess we start talking business. I informed my assistant Yamcha to get the contract done. He should be done with it at about lunch time. How about we get started with making my daily makeup?" She posed her hand at her jaw, proudly presenting her face.

"Your what now?" Vegeta leaned forward, raising his eyebrows. She said she‘d hire him as a makeup artist but he thought she wasn‘t serious. "You know that I am not really a makeup artist, right?"

She snorted in dismissal, "Oh come on! How bad could it be? At least you‘re not trying to make me look like a clown like the other guy. I‘m glad that he was only hired for that event."

He didn‘t know if he should laugh or cry. ‚How bad could it be‘, she asked.

__________

He stood in front of her cosmetics which were stored in a giant room next to her makeup studio. She had fucking everything from every fucking brand he ever heard of. Even more. Some well known high fashion brands from North, some base brands from West, even natural cosmetics Namekians produced. They didn‘t even have a human complexion so why the hell did she possess all of this?

Okay. Look for some base products first. You can later dig in the other products.

"What you looking for?" He flinched as he didn‘t notice that she stood behind him. "Holy shit, woman, announce yourself!" 

She snorted of laughter, "Sorry, Spike. You just looked a bit… lost."

"Of course I‘m fucking lost! I‘m no fucking makeup artist and you have a fucking ton of products I fucking don‘t know and I can‘t fucking find any fucking thing in this fucking room! FUCK!" he panted heavily. His breath became steadily slower, clenching his teeth when he looked back at the shelves, "Who organized this room?" 

Bulma looked up, putting a finger at her chin, "That's a good question. I actually have a team of artists that share this room, so I don't really know if anyone really organized that room at all."

Vegeta pinched his nose bridge. "Fan-fucking-tastic. Fine. Does any one of them know most of these products?"

"Uh, sure, should I get him here?" she asked. 

"ASAP. Thanks." Vegeta stared at the shelves, arms crossed in front of his chest, waiting.

________

When the man arrived, he went to stand right next to Vegeta, watching the shelves careful.

"What are we looking at?" he asked. 

No answer. 

Vegeta’s head was already spinning around about how to organize this mess. 

"My name‘s Krillin. Nice to meet you!" the bald man stretched out his hand to meet Vegeta‘s but he didn‘t make a move to do the same.

"You think you‘ll be finished soon, or..?" Bulma asked when her new employee cut her off.

"You go and do whatever. I need to have a word with," the tone in his voice changed to more disgust than before, "Krillin." 

The woman stood still for a moment, until she resigned and left, "Well, fine, you just call me when you finished… whatever you‘re doing."

Heat was radiating from Vegeta‘s body. His anger about this miserable state of organisation rose rapidly from a minor inconvenience to an endless amount of terror in his mind, the longer he observed it. He felt the smaller man shiver in fear, in anticipation of what he didn‘t know what would come. 

"So," Vegeta began to speak, making Krillin twitch, "Who is responsible for this horrifying mess?" Vegeta clenched his hands around his forearms. 

Blinking at him, Krillin took a moment to think about it, before he answered.

Good. Better think twice before you say something stupid, shorty. 

"Well, one of our artists isn‘t taking organization as serious as the others, so we kinda dropped trying, because it was hopeless."

Vegeta turned his head to meet the other man‘s eyes, "Tell me the name of the agitator."

"His name is Son. Kakarot Son. We call him Goku here and he‘s a really nice guy but, well, he isn‘t as.." Vegeta stopped the smaller man‘s explanation with raising his hand in front of Krillin's face.

"Enough." He stood still without making a noise, as Vegeta turned around. "First, we need to clean up this mess and you seem to be the best candidate. The woman assured me you know all of these products, is that correct?" 

Krillin was startled and he began to stutter, "I.. Uh… maybe, I mean.. I guess.." Vegeta glared at him, interrupting his poor try to explain himself. 

"I asked you if that is correct?" 

He straightened himself, holding his arm to his head in a military way, answering "Yes, sir!"

Vegeta raised an eyebrow in surprise, „The fuck dude? We‘re not in the army." 

"I‘m sorry… I guess I just got carried away." he laughed in embarrassment, scratching his cheek with his index finger. 

"Well, whatever. Now, let‘s get everything out of the shelves first."

_________

It was already past lunchtime when the woman came back to the studio, having a look at what the men were doing. She rubbed her eyes, clearly impressed by how they improved the whole concept of the room. She already knew that Vegeta was good at it, she‘d seen it at the gala when he rearranged everything, but he could see she was still stunned. 

They had gotten additional props from the storage and arranged the supplies by classes and sub-categories. Now, tables were arranged along the walls, each of them having a mirror with lighting attached to it. And in the middle there was another area for doing makeup with a barstool and a spotlight for the best illumination. It was perfect. This was an environment he could finally work in. 

"Get the other artists here, you need to introduce them to the new system." Vegeta said to his smaller co-worker, who grabbed his phone in an instant, beginning to phone everyone. 

Bulma still stood in awe when she suddenly walked to Vegeta, protesting, "Wait up a moment. It‘s lunch time! First of all, we need to sign the contract and then," she leaned closer, a big smirk covering her whole face, "I want to test your abilities."

Vegeta looked at her deadpan. "The abilities I don‘t have because you hired an event manager as your make up artist? Sure. Let‘s go ahead."

Krillin watched them as the tension rose, "So, uhm, I can call the others and we just start tomorrow with everything? Bulma?"

Vegeta felt the woman‘s determination. She didn‘t even bother looking back at the short man when she answered him, "That‘s a great idea, Krillin. Make sure everyone‘s here tomorrow morning and I‘ll have some fun with Spike later." she winked at Krillin, making him blush.

This vulgar woman was implying an intimate relationship in front of his subordinate. Despicable. As if she was hardly even in his league. 

"Well, let‘s start with lunch first." she cheerfully announced. 

"Ladies first." he replied dryly. This woman was challenging him and he was not letting his guard down. Not even for a minute. Whatever game she was playing, he was not having it. Best to keep a close eye on her. 

He didn‘t notice that Krillin had already left. 

___________

Their lunch was extraordinary. The woman called every available chef to the kitchen to cook twenty different dishes for Vegeta to try out. It wasn‘t like he was asking for it, but after that sparse breakfast, he could really use some good food. And there was plenty of it. 

The contract was signed just some time in between their feast. Attached to his copy was a pamphlet about company policies and an event planner with important dates for the rest of the year to be prepared for. The next big event was about six months away, the Capsule Fair. It was an annual event where the CC showed newest inventions and accomplishments in science. Every scientist with a name was attending it and it will be Vegeta‘s first debut at makeup artist director. 

The woman didn‘t care about it very much when her assistant came to bring in the contract, trying to talk to her about the blank space she left for his salary. But she just waved at him, dismissing his worries. Vegeta was free to put in the salary they agreed to, three times of what his old company paid him. She didn‘t even want his old contract as a proof for the amount. 

For some unknown reason this woman seemed to trust him. Or maybe she just didn‘t care.

It would be stupid if anyone didn‘t use the opportunity to boost their salary, right?

Vegeta wrote down the exact amount they agreed on and signed the contract. There might be no reason to trust him, but he was no cheap trick either. 

Cold sweat ran from Vegeta‘s neck as they headed back to the studio to ‚have some fun‘ like the woman said. He was already making plans in his mind, remembering all the products he and Krillin had organized before. It was easier to pick products from the new system as they were sorted by kind and effect. 

To the woman‘s surprise, Vegeta went straight to the shelves, taking out products without hesitation. He spread them on the table in the order he wanted to use them, starting off with skin care, base products, definition and eyes. 

Now, just get the brushes and get it over with.

____________

She couldn‘t stop laughing. He fucking told her that he had no expertise whatsoever in these things. She wouldn‘t listen. Now she could see it for herself. 

"Stop your snickering, Woman! I can‘t the fuck concentrate!" ,he snapped at her, trying to apply some kind of eye makeup. 

He was not used touching other people‘s faces where he had to be fucking gentle. And even though he tried, he couldn‘t prevent pushing and poking her. At first she reacted by showing her discomfort but the more she realised that he truly tried to be gentle, instead of just being rough, she couldn‘t avoid giggling. 

"I‘m fucking trying here, okay?" he leaned back with a loaded blending brush in his hand. If she wasn‘t standing still, he would paint her whole fucking face brown. Maybe he should just do it, that‘ll teach her.

"Okay, okay. I‘m done now!" she shut her eyes close, took a deep breath and was finally not moving anymore. Now or never.

He set the tip of the brush into the crease, trying to build up the color but he couldn‘t quite control the brush. It flicked a few times away from its designated area, causing the color to feather unsteady, making it look more like dirt than anything else. Just use a softer transition shade to blend it out, maybe it could be saved. He dabbed the brush into the color, concentrating on her eye. When he started blending it in, he noticed a bright yellow color popping up. In shock, he looked back at the palette, noticing he took the wrong color next to the one he wanted when he was fixated on her eyes.

"FUCK everything!" he screamed and the woman burst out laughing, "Don‘t you fucking laugh at me! I‘m not the one looking like an overly ripe banana! Fuck that shit! I‘m done!"

Tears built up in her eyes as she looked at herself in the mirror. She really looked like a banana. He couldn‘t help it that he was horrible at this. He was basically just beginning and she knew that. What a great way to make fun of people. Just hire them, pay them money so they don‘t complain about being mentally scarred. Fucking divas.

Just as he pushed himself up from his chair, ready to leave he felt a soft, warm hand intertwining with his. "Come on, spiky boy!" she said with a soothing voice. 

"My name is Vegeta. You fucking know that. You just signed that contract. My name is in it!" his voice didn‘t sound as angry as he wanted to. The tingling sensation in his hand was making him dizzy. Was he having a heart attack? No. The left arm should tingle when you have one, right? That wasn‘t it. 

"I know, I‘m sorry. It‘s just a nickname. Everyone I like gets one. But if it bothers you, I‘ll stop." He didn‘t answer. Why would he care about such trivial things? 

"I wasn‘t laughing about you. You were just too cute, I couldn‘t help it. This isn‘t a test, okay? You don‘t need to convince me. You have excellent knowledge about what you‘re doing. You‘re just not skilled in executing your ideas. At least yet. You don‘t have to be. I‘m fine if you just teach my team your knowledge you gained in North." She tried to calm him down.

Vegeta turned around, looking her straight in the eyes, "I will. I will make them the best team you ever had. And I will be the best leader and fucking make up artist West and even North had ever seen."

His words echoed in the studio. Their eyes didn‘t stray from each other‘s gaze. If she wasn‘t believing in him, he‘d show her. He‘d show everyone. 

When he snapped out of it, he noticed that she was still holding his hand. He gently pulled back, his eyes still fixed on hers, trying to convince her and himself that he was not backing out. Even though the tingle in his hand seemed unbearable.

They called it a day and cleaned up the working space. Tomorrow he would start training her crew and himself to become the best. Six months were doable to perfect his and their skills. 

When he headed home, he could still feel the warmth of her hand on his. 

* * *


	3. Align

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Makeup Monday everyone!
> 
> Time to meet the gang, everyone! And I hope you’ll like them as much as I do haha.

* * *

He was already in the studio at seven, cleaning out brushes and distributing them evenly, so every artist had their fair share of brushes they needed. The key to the facilities was given to him at the reception when he came in this morning. The woman must‘ve deposited it there. He could‘ve checked out the other rooms since this was a master key, but those were none of his concern.

Stupid enough of her to give out a master key to a stranger.

Krillin was the first to show up this morning, joining Vegeta at the studio about twenty minutes later. He enjoyed the silence in the morning, but Krillin didn‘t really bother him. He had knowledge about the supplies, which was extremely helpful the day before. If the rest of the team had only half the knowledge, they could be actually pretty useful.

"Morning!" Krillin said joyfully. Vegeta acknowledged him with a nod as he entered. He then began with his, apparently, daily routine. Checking out the storage for any missing supplies and noting everything on an inventory list, checking out the durability of the makeup on another, when he moved towards Vegeta.

"Hey, I have to order new brush soap, how about I get the sanitizing one?" he handed Vegeta a tablet with the different options listed.

Krillin knew everything they stored in the CC and and every update in the beauty world and he still asked him for an opinion?

"Do you need my help deciding on this?" Vegeta asked his smaller co-worker suspiciously. 

"Well, you‘re from North, eh? You actually have some expertise working in the fashion field. I just value your opinion, man!" he looked up to him as if he was some kind of idol.

Something was really off with these west citizens. Everyone was so genuine and god damn friendly. This had to be a giant prank being pulled off by someone who really hated him. Make him get comfortable in a new environment and then crush him entirely. Not that he was attached to anything or anyone. Of course not. 

"Just get the sensitive option with the least irritating ingredients. We work in the face and especially around the eye. We can‘t risk out clients to get a rash or allergic reaction because of this." Vegeta turned around working through the eyeshadow palettes. They might organized them but he still didn‘t know all the colors they had available.

"Good point, man! I‘ll check them out and order a bunch!"

The next half hour they worked in almost complete silence. But it somehow wasn‘t that uncomfortable. Most of the time people tried to get Vegeta into smalltalk, making it awkward since he didn‘t care for these kind of interactions. But Krillin just seemed to be fine with Vegeta doing his thing.

Eventually the rest of the crew arrived, consisting of five people, including Vegeta and Krillin. Tienshinhan was a big bulky guy with an extra eye on his forehead which could either be a pro or a con. Then there was Piccolo, a silent Namekian who always looked suspicious for his surroundings. Vegeta felt most relatable to him in the studio. The agitator, Kakarot, was an overly happy and naive individual. The others called him Goku, and he had no idea why. Maybe that woman gave him one of her infamous nicknames. Vegeta wasn‘t having it. 

Observing him, Vegeta was not surprised that he might be responsible for the chaos before yesterday. Kakarot was not the kind of person Vegeta liked to be surrounded by. But if he wanted this to work, this guy needed special attention. 

After a short introduction, they started the session with Vegeta explaining their new organization system. And Kakarot was explicitly advised to keep up the status quo or else Vegeta would degrade him to only coffee and sweeping. He pouted at that rule, but he really didn't want to only sweep either, so he had to work on his discipline. 

"Before Krillin goes on with educating you about our current spectrum of beauty products, I made you a copy of the newest event planner." he handed a paper to everyone of them. 

"Six months from now, the Capsule Fair will be hosted. Until then, we have to bring our work to perfection. Makeup has to be done for the whole staff, no matter if they give a speech or not. But the most important part of our work will be," He noticed that the door slightly opened and a particular woman sneaked in. "To bring out the natural beauty of the Brief‘s heiress, since she‘s my heart- I MEAN the heart of the CC!" Vegeta cleared his throat, mumbling under his breath. Oh for fuck‘s sake. 

Muted chuckles emanated from the crew. He was glad when Krillin finally took over to explain the new system, "So, guys, uhmm let‘s head to the storage and I‘ll show you how to operate from now on." 

He took the men to their storage when Vegeta felt a finger tapping on his shoulder, "Hey spiky boy, a little nervous on your first day?" 

He pulled his shoulder away from her, moving to the middle table, "Nonsense. I‘d be fine if some people didn‘t just sneak in in the middle of me talking." 

She giggled, "Well that would be hard since you really like to hear yourself talking. Then no one could walk in ever again."

Vegeta turned around, a wide smirk on his face, "You say that as if that was a bad thing. Sounds like the perfect environment for me." They both shared a soft chuckle over their sarcastic exchange.

"What‘s our plan for today?", she asked bluntly, obviously thinking his plans included her.

"Well, I have no idea what YOUR plan is. My plan is to train the crew and myself for better overall results. Don‘t you actually have a job? Like inventing stuff? Things like tha?" he replied when she started pouting with big, glassy eyes as if it had any effect on him.

"Oh, come on! It‘s your second day and I really want to spend more time with you to get to know you more!" she whined.

Vegeta rolled his eyes, grabbing some eye makeup brushes from the container, "Woman, this is business! If you want your team to develop, they have to be disciplined and taken seriously! This isn‘t a school trip where everyone tries to sneak away to drink a beer."

"Why do I have this feeling that your age when you tried this was highly inappropriate?"

"North was rough, okay? BUT the point stands! Discipline and hard work." Vegeta started arranging some palettes and pigments he wanted to try out this day. Krillin had gotten him a dummy so he could start working on his blending technique before he began to work on living models. He sensed that the woman was still standing behind him. He sighed.

"Okay, what do you want?" he resigned, turning the woman‘s expression to a gleaming smile.

"Lunch, okay? It‘s just an hour and we have good food and just talk a little! That‘s all I want." 

Her offer was quite reasonable. They needed a break eventually and an hour per day was endurable. "I can‘t promise that I will make it in time." he stated out when she objected, "That‘s fine! You just pick me up from my lab when you‘re done. You know where it is, right? The cafeteria is closer to my lab anyway!" She jumped out of the studio as if she just had a one-million-zeni idea.

He couldn‘t remember if anyone ever was so eager to spend time with him like Bulma Briefs.

Weird woman.

While Piccolo and Tien teamed up with Goku to intensely teach him how to organize the products, Vegeta chose Krillin so they could work on a makeup routine for the team as well as fixing Vegeta‘s rough methods. 

Starting off with the base, there were some options that were interesting to dig in more and try them out. Since this was for science events, not editorial shoots, the look had to be a little more natural. There was also a difference in how to execute the staff‘s makeup on and off the stage. And then there was Bulma Briefs who held such a special role in the company, that she deserved a technique just as extraordinary, when something specific came to his mind.

"Glass skin." he mumbled lost in thoughts. 

Krillin who was collecting some base products, looked back at his new boss, asking in confusion, "What now?" 

Vegeta, realising he actually said this out loud, instead of just thinking, repeated, "Glass skin." 

The bald man didn‘t seem as if this helped clarifying his case. „Is that… an illness? Like..Glass bones..or?" he stuttered. 

Vegeta narrowed his eyes, glaring at him deadpan. "Yes, I like to discuss rare medical conditions at work, which are not correlated to it at all." 

Krillin turned around, chuckling, "Come , man! That was rhetorical!" 

"Your ass is rhetorical." Vegeta replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest. 

"Rhetorically cute?" Krillin licked the tip of his index finger, touching his butt and making a hissing sound.

Vegeta‘s nose started twitching.

What the hell were these people with their unprofessionality?

"First, this doesn‘t even make any sense. Second, keep your flirting to the receptionist." he moved to the shelf, grabbing some serums from it and began to spread it on his workspace. 

"Nah, I‘m more into that cute audio girl that was working here the last gala. She and her brother had terrific mixing skills! I‘ll never forget those stingingly cold eyes that glared at me, saying ‚Fuck off‘." 

Vegeta stood completely still, staring at his co worker with raised eyebrows. He did not expect that. "Uhm. Wow, I wouldn‘t have guessed that you like coldass bitches. But you do you." he stated out with slight respect in his voice. Liking these kind of women was pretty brave. Stupid, yes, but brave nonetheless. 

"How about you? What‘s your type?" Krillin approached Vegeta with curiosity, and umcommonly, he actually felt like answering this pretentious question. He probably won‘t leave him alone until he answered, so better cut this off already. 

"I don‘t really have a type. But, to your information, I haven‘t met anyone who met my standards yet. Not that I would care." he dismissed this subject with taking the base products Krillin had in his hands, hoping that that was that. 

It wasn‘t.

"Oh wow, you really haven‘t met anyone so far? I thought a guy like you would have ten girls for every finger. I mean with your looks and badass attitude. I thought that you‘d be popular among the girls. I couldn‘t keep my hands from you if i was one of them, to be honest!" 

Vegeta rolled his eyes hard as Kirlin continued his stammering when he decided to release him, "Okay, hold on now! First, would you finally stop flirting with me? I’m flattered, but shut it. Save your breath for the Ice Queen. And second, I said that nobody met MY standards yet. There were plenty of offerings but I don‘t fall for those faceless mannequins. They‘re no challenge." 

After saying this, Krillin was silent for a moment. Apparently surprised about the confessions Vegeta just made, who bent down to get the dummy out of its box.

"Well, maybe you‘re luckier in west, eh?" Vegeta felt a hand tapping on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Krillin having a weird expression of trying to comfort him. Even though he had no need for any gesture of comfort. 

He was fine. He liked being alone. In fact, he wished he was alone right now. Guess he wasn‘t lucky in West in being alone. "Uhm. Thanks. I guess. We should start working."

___________

His first try wasn‘t going well. Well, basically it was his second try, when he counted in yesterday when he gave the woman a banana eye makeup. He didn‘t. All he knew about makeup was adapted from the fashion environment, and it wasn‘t exactly practical to know how to do an editorial look. Apart from that he only theoretically knew how to achieve what he imagined.

"I can see where you‘re trying to go with this, Vegeta, but maybe we should take a few steps back." Krillin said, reaching for another batch of unused brushes. 

"Just tell me where my errors are. No beating around the bush." Vegeta leaned back in his seat, piercing his co worker with his deadly glare. 

"You started off with a sticky base, which is perfectly fine if you want to go full vibrant and need more than bare skin where the pigments can hold onto. But when you want a more subtle, natural look you either go without any base or you set it with a creamy matte color beforehand." Krillin explained to his attentive student.

"So, what effect does this have?" Vegeta asked. 

"I‘m glad you asked, young padawan,” No matter how informative Krillin's presentation might be, if he didn‘t stop belittling him, he would soon meet Vegeta‘s fist in his face. "You want the stickiness of the base to be gone but not lose the correcting effect. Without the stickiness, colors are easier to blend. Especially when you wanna go more natural. You then just have to load your brush with color, and little by little build up the intensity you want." 

While he explained, he demonstrated his method on a dummy, slowly increasing color with a fluffy blending brush. It looked marvellous. His technique was clean and smooth. That was what he was aiming for, in regards of the Briefs‘ heiress.

"Like this?" Vegeta started to work out the second base that wasn’t ruined yet. He took a light creamy color, as he was told, and started to blend in a soft matte copper. His blending wasn‘t the best, at least yet, but he was a fast learner and was determined to master it.

"Wow, impressive! You‘re quick! Absorbing everything like a sponge, eh?" 

Vegeta looked at Krillin, no emotion on his face whatsoever. "When I‘m a sponge, the hell are you?"

Krillin answered with confidence, and Vegeta was almost taken aback, "Definitely a starfish!" Krillin leaned forward and whispered, "Best buddy, eh?“ Vegeta turned around slowly, giving Krilin nothing but a deadly stare and awkward silence as reply.

"In what universe are a sponge and a starfish friends?" Vegeta answered dryly, making Krillin chuckle in embarrassment. 

"Oh, well, never mind.” Krillin cleared his throat.

Probably best to not know the answer to this riddle.

“This was a good first session. We should clean up and take a break. We’ll continue after lunch."

Was it that late already? Vegeta didn‘t watch the time when he was focused. He normally took as long as he needed and would only stop when he was eventually satisfied with the result. But he didn't expect this attitude from others, so he normally worked while everyone else was having a break or went home long ago.

"You go ahead, I can clean up, buddy." Krillin said, to Vegeta‘s surprise.

"What? No, I prefer to clean up my mess myself.", Vegeta insisted. 

"Don‘t you have a Date with Bulma?"

"I- uh… a what? I‘m ..no! This is just lunch. Relating to business. Nothing more!"

Krillin laughed at Vegeta‘s reaction, "I didn‘t mean romantic date, obviously. Just let me do this and you go get some food. You can clean up after work if you insist on doing your part." He started pushing Vegeta to the door, "No discussions!"

Just as he pushed Vegeta outside the room, he smashed the door shut. No discussions. 

Apparently he was having a break now. 

__________

When he entered the lab, everything was dark. Maybe the woman was already at the cafeteria? Just have a quick look if anybody‘s here and then head to lunch.

His eyes adapted to the darkness quickly and he had no problem whatsoever maneuvering through the lab facilities. It was a huge lab, divided into different rooms that were connected with each other. As he walked round the corner, he saw a flashing light, followed by the sound of an explosion.

Shit. 

He hastily ran to the place where he saw electric flickering, where he noticed the woman laying unconsciously bent on the table in front of her. "Woman!" He grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her up when two bright blue eyes looked at him, a wide grin plastered underneath. "...what..?", he said in plain confusion. 

"I fucking did it!" she jumped up from her chair, hopping to a small glowing vial that was fixed between long metal needles with coils of wire wrapped around them. The room was illuminated by a subtle blue glow that only got disturbed by waved of jittering electricity streaming through the wires. She grabbed the vial, kissing it in exuberant joy.

"What the hell are you talking about!?", he growled, throwing his hands up in a questioning motion. 

"You see this? This blue liquid is an extremely energy-rich fuel I was researching for the last couple of years! We found an unknown matter deep down in the ground, almost at core level and I tried to carve out it’s potential. This is groundbreaking! With this liquid, a whole new horizon will spread in front of us! We can finally…"

"Would you finally shut up for a second!" Vegeta cut her off, pinching the bridge of his nose. He felt anger building up in his stomach and he tried really hard to contain it. He wasn‘t really successful.

"What‘s wrong?" the woman asked, blinking at him in confusion.

"What‘s WRONG? I come here to get you for lunch, as you told me to, only to hear a fucking explosion and see you laying there unconscious and you ask me WHAT‘S WRONG?" he barked at her, running around aimlessly, trying not to punch anything.

"Well, I wasn‘t really unconscious so…"

"But if fucking LOOKED like it, okay?! GODDAMMIT!"

Breathe, nothing happened. Everything‘s fine.

"I- I‘m sorr-„ he cut her off „Oh, you better be!" he was about to explode. She could stick her half assed excuses elsewhere, he didn‘t care. 

"I have to get out of here." he turned on his heel, aiming for the exit. 

"Vegeta, wait!" he heard tiny steps chasing him and he turned around „Leave me THE FUCK ALONE!" he screamed at her when he suddenly felt something cold wrapping around his left hand.

He looked down and noticed two tiny hands holding his.

Why were they so cold? Last time she grabbed his hand, they were so warm he couldn‘t stand it. But what was this feeling, right now? It was cold and- was she shaking? He looked up from his hand in horror.

"I- ...", she began to stutter, „I am sorry. Please…" Fuck. She was scared. Well done, asshole. You screamed at her without restraint. And now she was scared. The only fucking being on earth that looked forward spending time with you - for whatever reason.

"No, I- I didn‘t mean to-" he began speaking when she looked at him with glassy eyes. He swore to god, if she was going to cry, he‘d fucking commit seppuku today. "DAMMIT, just tell me when you‘re doing crazy exploding experiments when I come to get you, next time!"

"N- next time? Really?" she sniffed.

"Well, of course! You said you didn‘t do breaks on a regular basis, so I fucking come and get you." she stood there in front of him, not saying a single word, when he turned around, starting do drag her behind him, still holding her hand tightly in his. "Let‘s grab some fucking food."

He didn‘t turn around but he felt her hand slowly warming up again. 

__________

Lunch was quiet today. Normally he would prefer it this way but this silence was deafening. But what should he say? ‚Ayyy, sorry for being as explosive as your experiments haha loljk’? Brilliant. 

Why wasn‘t she talking as always? God, this felt like eternity. 

"So," she suddenly started, making Vegeta almost choke on his food, „how is your food?"

Vegeta wiped his lips with a napkin, answering, "Uhm, excellent." before it went silent again. WELL DONE. ONE FUCKING WORD. GENIUS.

They were the only ones at lunch this day since most people went way earlier to lunch than they managed to do. Tien, Piccolo and Kakarot were probably in the studio again, trying to fill that airhead with rules. Was Krillin already finished cleaning up? Maybe he‘d walk in any minute now and release them from this awkward situation.

"And you come and get me tomorrow?" she went on.

"Like I said." he replied.

She began cluttering together her cutlery on the tablet, clearing up her space. Wait, was she already finished? They didn‘t really talk at all and now she was leaving?

Well done, asshead.

She stood up, her tablet in her hand, "Then, I‘ll see you tomorrow?"

He nodded silently and watched as she walked away. When she went around the corner, he let out a breath he didn‘t know he was holding.

Wow, was he looking forward to these deadly silent lunch breaks.

__________

He didn‘t eat as much as he planned to do this morning. But after this incident in the lab, his hunger was gone. And this awkward mood between them while lunch, didn‘t help either.

At least lunch was over and he could go back to work. Four hours left until the others leave. Only four hours he had to survive until he could work on his own.

When he entered the studio, there was a commotion coming from Kakarot's workspace and Vegeta was already expecting the worst. If that braindead of Kakarot was bulshitting with his organization, he was going to kill him.

"Believe me! That look is the bomb! When Vegeta sees this he will - Oh! There you are already! Hey Geeta!" the troublemaker called suspiciously euphoric when Vegeta entered the room.

"For you, it‘s ‚Vegeta, sir.‘" he clarified.

"Don‘t be silly, ya don‘t have to call me sir, man!"

"I did not-"

"C‘mere! Let me show ya what I worked on while you were gone!" he started pulling Vegeta at his elbow to his table where a dummy was placed on which he obviously practiced on. 

On it, he saw cateye makeup with a gradient getting lighter to the inner corner. There it started with a frosty shimmery color fading in to a yellow golden metallic and ending in a saturated, vibrant orange. To top it off, the lower lash line was also framed by the same colors.

"What exactly am I looking it?" Vegeta said, not knowing how to react. "You know how to blend colors, congratulations."

"Aww, thanks buddy! See? I knew he would like it!" he turned around facing his co-workers with a bright, proud gleam in his face.

"I did not say that-"

"Now it‘s set! That‘s Bulma‘s event makeup!" 

"Wait, WHAT?! What in West makes you think that THIS is a good look for the woman?" Vegeta asked, completely dumbstruck by the conclusion Kakarot made by this conversation.

"Good question Geeta! I saw Bulma at the Gala and she told me that you picked her colors! And that orange looked so great on her, maybe we should just keep that up, don‘t ya think?"

"Okay, first, it was APRICOT. Not THIS abomination of color you put on the dummy. Second, except for Krillin I haven‘t seen how any of you work. So why do you believe that you can just decide what to do? And last but not least, working on a good look will be our main concern for the next months solely! This process needs careful thinking and a lot of trial and error. You can’t just decide that in a jiffy. You can call us glad if we decide on a look a week beforehand so we still have time to practice it."

The team looked at Goku, visibly relieved that Vegeta had the guts to be brutally honest with him. Only the Namekian had an expression of ‚I told you so‘ in his eyes. 

"And now, everyone will create a signature look. No restrictions, no specific kind of event. Just show me what you‘re made of!" When everyone turned on their heels, gathering supplies for their looks, Vegeta turned to Goku, piercing him with his voice, "And YOU will fucking clean up your workspace and I will observe if you can memorize any of the rules and if you can‘t It‘s sweeping and coffee."

Kakarot stood still on an instant, saluting, "Yes, Vegeta, sir!" and started gathering the products on his table. He was no drill instructor but he felt it was appropriate for Kakarot to act like a military subordinate. 

And now he was waiting, curious what everyone was capable of. 

* * *


	4. Design

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I once planned to have a 3 chapter crackfic about Vegeta doing makeup but then story happened kind of

* * *

About four hours later, Vegeta sat alone in the Studio. The afternoon went on without any incidents and everyone worked hard on their designs. And he was quite satisfied with the results.

He ordered his team to place their dummies next to each other on individual pedestals so he can analyze them better. But before he could take a closer look, he had to do the clean up. After all, he owed Krillin after he cleaned up this noon. And men of honor always kept their words. 

Vegeta was glad that he finally had a minute in silence this day. The only silence he had today, was at lunch and that experience was far from pleasant.

While he put away the palettes, he was thinking about tomorrow. He said he would come and get her for lunch again. With that weird mood between them, this probably was a horrible idea. What if this was going on forever? Maybe she didn‘t even want his company anymore but was too scared to tell him. 

Fuck.

He stood in front of the makeup shelves, his eyes not focused on anything. The memory of her shaking hands, trembling in fear popped up in his head. In fear of him. He really fucked up, didn‘t he? Right as he started indulging in self pity, the door opened gently.

What did this idiot of Kakarot forget this time? "Goddamit, can‘t this wait till tomorrow, you birdbrain?" He turned around in annoyance when a small frame topped with teal locks caught his eye.

"I‘m sorry, I‘m late…" she said with certain reluctance.

"I- I didn‘t know you wanted to come. I actually expected someone else."

"I really wanted to see you guys in action but I‘m behind time, as always." she said with disappointment in her voice.

He couldn‘t see her like this. He needs to come up with something to cheer her up, when something came to his mind, "Fortunately, the teammates worked on their own designs today. You can have a look at it if you want to." he presented her the dummies standing in the middle of the room. 

"Oh wow," she took a look at the designs, "Those are pretty diverse. Let me guess, the orange one is Goku‘s?" she pointed at the dummy with the orange eye makeup.

"Don‘t you fucking tell me he uses orange all the fucking time."

"Yeah he‘s been a little obsessed with orange. Nobody knows why." Vegeta laid his right hand on his face, massaging his temples with thumb and index finger. "But I‘m sure a competent person like you can teach him how to make it better! Not, that I‘m not liking this shimmery orange gradient but, you know." 

He nodded in silent affirmation. And in silence they analyzed the looks the team created.

Krillin created a basic everyday look that worked with warm tones of brown in the crease. The blending was flawless and not too extreme. He highlighted the look with a shimmery silver-golden cream eyeliner which ended in a slight cateye. Something like that could be good for the staff that‘s not on the stage that evening. In addition, Krillin was fast and he was probably capable of doing the whole staff‘s makeup beforehand if he had to.

The next look was more concentrated on a flawless, radiant base. Piccolo knew best how to work with different base colors. Namekians were a race of nature bounded people, able to analyze a person‘s body chemistry and act accordingly to bring out their natural glow. This applied to skin care, as well as the base with all steps like color correction and finishing touches. His eye makeup was accordingly plain, but it wasn‘t his claim to care that much about it either. 

He and Krillin could probably work on a perfect base routine with their overwhelming knowledge.

The next on their list was Tienshinhan‘s makeup. He went for a clean, traditional look with a heavy black eyeliner and a berry red color on the Lid, filling out the space right to the eyeliner. He was a member of the crane tribe, of which the people had a very different face structure compared to Westians. Furthermore his tribe was mixed with two and three eyed people, where he made very different makeup experiences to his coworkers. His ability to work with a variety of different formed eyelids, could compensate the eye makeup to bring more consistency to their looks throughout the staff.

"That‘s so impressive! And so… different. Probably makes it harder for them to work on the same project, doesn‘t it?" she asked still an analyzing eye on their pieces.

"Nonsense." he said dryly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "When you put together a new machine, you don’t use every element to do the same job, do you? You use them for their purpose, what they‘re best at. So that‘s the same here. We‘re working together on a result where everyone adds their best quality. And as a leader I‘m here to coordinate what they‘re doing."

The woman was dumbstruck for a moment, blinking at him with her big blue eyes. "Wow. That‘s surprisingly reasonable. I thought you‘d drill them to no end."

"The one doesn't exclude the other." he said with an devilish smirk planted on his face. "Well, I guess I wrap it up for today. Did you see what you wanted?" he started clearing the rest of the tables, collecting the rest of the brushes. They were still dusted in eyeshadow, so he turned around to go for the sink, when he saw the woman staring, apparently lost in thoughts. 

Where the hell was she looking at? He followed her view, noticing her eyes were pierced to his chest. He turned around to see if something was behind him but there was nothing. When he bent forward to meet her eyes with his, she snapped out of it. 

"I… Uh… Yes! I did see… What I… wanted." her eyes were again fixed on whatever she was watching. 

Weird woman. 

"Well, actually, I can't see your design among these. Didn't you try anything?" she suddenly went on. 

"You think I'm ready to work on an own design, yet?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Krillin showed me some basic blending. So that's what I practiced today." 

"You underestimate yourself. Your problem is not a lack of ideas, it's only the technical skill that needs to be build. And when you learned some blending, you're probably already good to go." while she went on, he made his way to the sink, dipping the brushes with brush soap, cleaning them on a textured silicone mat. 

"If you say so." he didn't believe her. But it sometimes was best to just agree to prevent further discussions. 

"Let's try it!" she announced and he stopped.

"Excuse you? You know what happened just yesterday. There‘s no use in trying it again so shortly after this disaster."

„Well, best way to get better, is training. I thought you‘d might be a guy that doesn‘t avoid a good training." she said with wiggling eyebrows, her eyes drifting to his chest again. 

He contemplated what could possibly happen for a moment, until he agreed, „Fine. Sit down there." 

She sat down at the same place as yesterday, jumping on the chair in joyful anticipation. As he gathered some items from the shelves, he asked her, „So, any wishes today?"

„Oh, wow. Trying a new strategy this time?"

„Woman, don’t provoke me. You‘re the client after all. So I might should try work on commissions, too. Take it or leave it."

„Okay, okay. Uhm.. Let‘s see. How about some cool tones this time? I have seen every shade of orange-red-yellow working with Goku for a few years now."

„Fair enough." he agreed. With grabbing some eyeshadow palettes without hesitation, he already had a rough idea about what look he wanted to achieve this time. The industry normally didn‘t produce monochromatic palettes, except for brownish nudes and maybe red centered ones. But blue was still an underdog and was only placed as eyecatcher in some palettes, why he had to work with a few to have a variety of blues. „I am still in training, so I need to concentrate. Would you mind to.."

„No Talking. Got it!" she moved her hand to the mouth, making a keylocking motion, throwing away the key.

____________

  


This woman could literally wear everything. 

Vegeta wasn‘t impressed by her choosing cool colors at first. With her teal hair and blue eyes, he liked to use complementary colors to bring out her natural glow. But now she sat in front of him, eyes still closed when he was grabbing a fixing spray. He observed her with a curious eye, analyzing his creation. She could literally wear everything. 

And even though his blending was still a little patchy, it was a whole other dimension than the day before. Dammit, she was right when she told him that he was only lacking skill. But he was not giving her that gratitude by telling her.

„So?" she asked.

„Wait, let me fix it first." he announced, reaching for a spray with a dewy finish to go with her blue eye makeup to create the illusion of shimmering oceans on her eyes. „Done."

She turned around for the mirror. He placed her not facing it, to prevent her being able to comment on everything he was executing. He wasn‘t experienced enough to handle this shit. But now he was an even more nervous wreck, not knowing how she would react.

For a very long minute, everything was silent. And he couldn‘t stand it. This woman was continuously talking and every minute she actually kept silent, couldn‘t mean anything good. 

He sat on his chair, his right leg nervously jumping, arms folded tight to his chest. And every second he felt his tension rising, his hands increasing the pressure of their grasp. 

„Holy shit, woman, would you FINALLY say something?!" he snapped.

„I…" she began to stutter.

Here it comes. The crushing appraisal of the most influential woman on this planet, ready to stomp him into the ground. 

„I… LOVE IT!" she turned on her heel, her eyes beaming in the most beautiful blue shade he had ever seen. 

The look really made her eyes appear as if they literally glowed, illuminating her skin around them. He had never seen such gorgeous eyes. 

„This is brilliant! This satin finish on top of matte colors and sealed with this wet look topcoat! Wow! I have never seen myself with blue before, but this? Total eye-opener. You think it‘s possible to go more for a blue for the fair?"

„I uh…. well sure, but-" he agreed to her pleading when she suddenly rushed towards him, throwing her arms around his neck.

„Yes! Thank you! I love it! This is gorgeous! YOU are gorgeous!"

Too close. She was too close.

„Woman, holy shit would you-" he felt dizzy. Her face was pressed to his cheek and he didn‘t know how to process this feeling. He grabbed her arms, gently loosening up her grip.

„Oh, yeah, sorry! I guess I‘m not good with containing my emotions." a gentle laugh left her chest.

His chest was about to burst any minute but SHE was the one who couldn‘t contain her emotions? Was this irony? Or Karma? This day was dragging his emotions on some apeshit rollercoaster and it wasn‘t stopping so soon, apparently.

When she turned her face towards him again, he realised she was still too close, despite him already loosened up her clutch. She looked at him visibly surprised herself to find him so near to her, quickly removing herself from him. She reached for her arm as if she burned herself. 

Vegeta viewed her in confusion. Did she realise her inappropriateness just now? Better to keep the distance. At least this was better than this weird silence this lunch. 

He let out a breath he didn‘t know he was holding. „We should call it a day, probably." 

„Yeah, maybe you‘re right." 

The woman started to pick up some utensils, until Vegeta waved at her dismissively. She took a moment to look around at the mess, but then resigned shortly after.

Walking towards the door, she then opened it with hesitance and then began to speak, "I just- Thank you."

He quirked an eyebrow, dryly answering, „That‘s my job."

„No, I meant... everything else." and with those words, she closed the door.

He couldn't quite make up what she meant by this. He didn‘t do anything despite what he was supposed to. So, whatever she meant, wasn‘t accessible to him. Maybe he could ask her tomorrow for further explanations.

He was going to get her for lunch, after all. 

__________

  


The next weeks went on without any further incidents. The lunch breaks were quiet. Well, actually far from it. But no drama so far. The woman was cheery and full of joy, talking about her newest scientific breakthroughs. He understood the most of it, even though he had nothing to do with science whatsoever. But it was fun listening to her. The fire burning in her eyes when she announced she solved a problem that was bugging her for months, was enlightening.

There hadn‘t been a silent minute ever since. And even if there was, it was not a depressing mood ever again. They actually enjoyed just spending time together. No words needed. 

And after learning that the woman really liked blue on her eyes, that was something they could explore further. 

So Vegeta decided to build teams for the exploration stage. While he still had to practice his skills, Piccolo and Krillin took care of experimenting with skin care and base products, to reach the best possible outcome. They also needed to consider different skin types and textures, so the routine would not fail on some people. And since they both didn’t care much for an overwhelming expressive eye makeup, their routine also incorporated a solid design for the overall staff that was not acting on the stage. 

And as hard as this decision was, Vegeta chose Tien and Kakarot to experiment for the stage makeup, including the Brief‘s heiress. This task involved trying out different styles, colors and combinations, only keeping in mind that the main part of the woman‘s makeup shall be blue. This instantly put the brainbird in an existential crisis to realise he can not just paint everything orange and be happy. He tried to sneak in some orange nonetheless every now and then but none of these designs stood a chance to be taken into consideration. 

That was until that day Vegeta entered that studio in the morning and he would find Kakarot at his table, his face laid into his palms. 

It was unusual that he was at work that early. He normally came in late, had a lot of food breaks and left early again to spend time with his wife and child. That had been fine with Vegeta ever since. Less Kakarot meant less possibilities to get their organisation destroyed. And though he really put an effort in not creating any chaos, Vegeta was still cautious around him. 

„What are you doing here at this hour?" Vegeta hoped that this idiot didn‘t do anything to ruin their accomplishments.

„Oh. Hey Geeta. Is it morning already? How time flies." Kakarot said, almost in trance.

Did that moron stay here overnight? Why would he do that? He had a fucking family to come home and he stayed here?

„Why are you here?" It wasn‘t as if he cared for any gossip, but if something was putting Kakarot into misery and put the team‘s productivity into danger, he needed to know and solve this problem immediately. 

„I‘m sorry Vegeta. I tried. I really did. I know I‘m being no help here at all. I really want to be, but all I can come up with, is something Bulma didn‘t ask for. Maybe I should just quit." he explained desperately.

„Is this about the colors? What the hell is up with you and orange? You act as if there‘s no other color in this universe."

„That‘s not true! I love all colors perfectly fine! It‘s just… I don‘t know. There's something about that kind of tones that make me feel something that I have long forgotten."

Vegeta was listening but it was like Kakarot spoke a completely different language. None of this made sense. „Explain."

Kakarot hesitated a moment, but then began to speak, „You see, I‘m not from here. My legal name is Kakarot but Goku is the name my grandfather gave me. He wasn‘t really my grandfather, he actually just took care of me when I came here. And since I don‘t have any memories of who I was before, or who I was meant to be, I sticked to Goku. But you calling me by my legal name… somehow triggered something in me. Memories of a woman, humming me to sleep. And a sky, orange in color, no matter if day or night, made me really want to explore these feelings."

Vegeta narrowed his eyes in confusion. Orange sky? He had never seen anything like this in neither North nor West. Unless, „You‘re a Saiyan."

„A what now..?" Kakarot perked up, still confused but suddenly sitting straight in his chair.

„The orange sky you described, that phenomenon of no matter what daytime it was, colored in shades of orange. That‘s the sky of Planet Vegeta you‘re talking about. The two sun’s constellation makes the day-night cycle less intense, making the sky appear in a constant sunset. You‘re a Saiyan."

„So, you‘re telling me I‘m an alien? Like the ones on TV? With UFOs? That‘s just silly Geeta, haha!"

„Holy shit, we have a fucking Namekian in our team and you doubt aliens?"

Vegeta could see how the scales fell from Kakarot's eyes.

„Holy crap! Piccolo is an alien?? I had NO idea! I just thought he was from a foreign tribe, like Tien. Huh, that explains that Piccolo didn‘t laugh when I made those Sci-Fi jokes last week at Bulma‘s barbeque."

„No, those were just horrible. Nobody laughed."

„Haha, yeah sure Geeta! Whatever you say!" he laughed, obviously not believing Vegeta‘s words. „Wait a second. Planet Vegeta? But YOUR name is Vegeta!"

„Yes, slowpoke. I‘m the first born of the Saiyan kingdom, Prince Vegeta."

„But why are you here now, when you are a prince at home?"

„Being the first born is actually linked to a lot of rules and prohibitions, since you‘re destined to become king one day. You’re basically not allowed to state your own opinions, stick to every tradition, you‘ll get an arranged marriage and every other minute of your life is already planned. I wasn‘t having that shit, so I left."

„Wow. That‘s intense, Geeta. I don‘t think I can process this flood of information right now." Kakarot laid his palm against his forehead. Ironic that Vegeta always asked himself if he was ever processing any information he was given. But apparently this was so much that even kakarot realised he couldn‘t handle it. „You think we could travel there some day? Maybe I can look for my family!"

„Well, when I declined my birthright, I actually was banned from the planet, so, no. I can‘t come with you." That announcement visibly wiped every enthusiasm from Kakarot's face. 

Vegeta knew he was no use in his state, so he started thinking when suddenly something came to his mind, „Actually, there might be someone who would like to travel with you." the man‘s eyes grew wide in joyful expectations. „When I worked in North I had a few Saiyans as coworkers. One of them told me a few years ago that he had a brother that he never learned to know because he was sent off to earth for unknown reasons. That brother‘s name was Kakarot." Kakarot’s mouth turned into a wide hopeful smile, almost intimidating Vegeta. „Well, this might be just a coincidence, but I could give that guy a call and arrange something, if you please."

„Oh boy! Of course I do! What‘s his name? Is he nice? I can‘t wait to see if he might be part of my family! Chichi and Gohan will get so excited about these news!" 

„Calm down. That‘s just a possibility. Don‘t get too disappointed if he‘s not your brother. But he might know something. And if not, he can support you finding you family. His name is Raditz."

„Raditz, huh? That‘s neat. Can‘t wait to meet this Rad in person."

The fuck was with these people and nicknames? Could they just fucking stop or anything?

„So, what did you do here the whole fucking night?" Vegeta finally went on with his investigations about the events of the last night.

Kakarot‘s previous happiness was suddenly wiped off his face. He started laughing nervously, scratching the back of his head. That‘s when Vegeta started looking around, noticing every dummy the CC possessed distributed in the room, everyone of them decorated with a different eyeshadow design. Some of them having different styles per eye and a few even plastered with color schemes all over them. 

Vegeta’s jaw fell open in shock. The crew would be here in an hour at most. How would they manage to clean up everything beforehand? 

He started walking around, examining the mess in disbelieve. Blues and oranges everywhere. He wasn‘t surprised if that moron used up all of their eyeshadows in stock. „What the hell is all of this?"

„I‘m really sorry Geeta. I was trying to contribute something useful to the designs and maybe overdid it a little bit." Kakarot apologized.

„A little bit? That might be a little under-"

When viewing the dummies Vegeta‘s eye was suddenly caught by a specific one standing in the middle. 

It only had one design, nothing else smudged on it. It was clean, well executed and it had blue and orange combined in it. Well, it was apricot but that moron couldn‘t tell the difference anyways. 

The upper lid was designed as a halo eye with a french blue in the crease and fading out from the outer and inner corner, merging into a more teal, almost transparent looking sky blue around the lid as a transition color. The middle of the lid was lightly covered in apricot with a wet look top coat, making it look like water was emanating from the crease. The lower lash line was mirroring the upper with the blues, but left out the apricot, just fading from the dark outer corner to the light shimmery inner corner. 

Vegeta was baffled by the perfect execution. It was the best of both worlds. The apricot on the lid made it look more natural, complementing the woman‘s natural colors and the blue would add an unconventional hint of color without looking too overwhelming and puppet-like. 

As Kakarot restarted apologizing in every possible way, Vegeta cut him off, lifting his hand, two fingers held straight. „Enough. We will fix that later. That said, you can take the day off."

„Vegeta, I‘m really sorry! Please don‘t fire me! I can take care of that mess, I swear!"

„The hell you talking about? You stayed up all night. You‘re exhausted. You have a loving family waiting for you. Go home. You did a decent job today."

„I… I did?" Kakarot asked in disbelief.

„Yes."

The wide grin came back to Kakarot‘s face, almost jumping Vegeta for a big hug, when a piercing glance stared back at him and he tried to contain his outbursting feelings. He then just said goodbye, again thanking Vegeta for his kindness and set out for home. 

When the crew arrived, they would have to take care of this horrible mess. But that was fine. Because this day he could announce that they found a design for the Brief‘s heiress.

It was obvious that Kakarot could remember more than just the sky of Planet Vegeta. But he could see it himself when he visited the planet, together with his brother Raditz. The bright sun reflecting in the bluest oceans in this universe wasn‘t a view that anyone could ever forget. 

* * *


	5. Shine

* * *

Finally the day had come. Today they would see if the months of hard, exhausting work would result into success or failure. 

The day of Capsule Fair was a rainy one, already a perfect setup for everyone to be already annoyed before they even arrived. So this Fair needed to be flawless to enlighten everyone’s mind and let them spend all their money this evening. 

And besides already earning a shitload through selling their stuff, the tons they needed to work on new projects were far beyond good and evil. 

While the majority of the facilities were already prepped over the week, details and of course the staff needed to be finished today. 

But since Vegeta was the one organizing, he didn‘t feel the slightest pinch of stress. And since the woman seemed to really care for his opinion, he could even organize some other fields he wasn‘t even involved in. But event management was his to be and he earned the CC‘s trust over the last months. 

And that played right into his cards, since there were still some things he had to take care of. The decision this fair was the perfect opportunity for this, was made the moment he knew about it. 

The event would start about noon, with a fully packed program with demonstrations of new items and ended in the evening with the highlight of the heiress of the CC presenting their newest, groundbreaking device.

Enough time to execute his plans. 

__________

  
  


The day started off as usual. Just earlier. Way earlier. While Vegeta started at about four, which was 2 hours earlier than normally, the rest of the team joined him about an hour later, as usual. Just earlier. 

Only Krillin and Piccolo were in earlier than the rest, already gathering all the supplies they needed for their base routine. To get everything done in time, they needed to start soon, to get at least the staff at the reception and around done, before working on the stage makeup. 

Fully prepared, they instantly started working on the staff‘s skin care. Even the men got the full treatment. They couldn‘t look like goblins when the rest was healthy and glowing. When about a dozen of people were done already, Tien joined the group, following their routine plan to work on base and eye makeup. 

Kakarot was the only one who really had to actively fight his tiredness. And next to the conventional methods like coffee and cold water, he literally decided to fight, by bringing in his punching bag. 

Only a braindead as Kakarot could take ‚fighting‘ as a literal demand. 

But it was a method. And since they were about to spend the whole day together, up to 24 hours, it‘d probably be useful for everyone who‘s feeling the urge to punch someone‘s face. 

Not that Vegeta had anyone specifically in mind but he could already see himself making good use of it. 

Between Kakarot‘s breaks, what he called Food `n Fight, he started working on the people who had to enter the stage early, presenting some devices they improved and updated over the last year. 

The main color of the staff‘s eye makeup, no matter if they were on stage or not, was apricot, leaned to the woman’s design without the blue. They went with a deep red around the upper lash line, ending in a slight cateye, to underline the eyes and making them pop out a little. For the stage, the features in the face were deepened, as well as the eye design exaggerated to be seen better in the stage lights. 

And those colors were exactly up to Kakarot‘s alley. And when he had fun, Kakarot was really working clean and fast, even with all the breaks, so it didn‘t bother Vegeta at all, since he finished everyone in no time. 

That‘s when they heard a loud knock on their door.

„Oh, Geez! That’s probably Bulma! Time you work on her makeup, Geeta!" Kakarot said overjoyed.

„Why the fuck would the woman knock the door? She owns this fucking place."

„Whoopsie, you‘re right, I guess I go check on who dat is then." he jumpingly walked towards the door, ripping it open ungently, facing whomever with the typical bright Kakarot smile that Vegeta wasn‘t able to wipe off his stupid face.

Calm down. He‘s doing good work. No need to punch- Wait. He never thought the punching bag came in handy that early today. 

„Yo, we were told to get in touch with someone who‘s named...Korin? Kevin?" a boy with shoulder long dark hair explained, trying to decipher a handwritten note.

„Krillin?"

„Yeah, that one. `S he here?"

„Hey, Krillin here are people for you! Did you commission some models? They look like models."

The two in front of Kakarot looked at each other, the blond haired girl leaving out an annoyed sigh, „Uhm, thanks, no. We‘re from Gero Stage Engines, we‘re here to set up light and sound."

„G- Gero?!" Krillin jumped up from his chair, remembering that cold voice only too good. „I- you- T-that‘s not even my department you must‘ve mixed up something."

„No, that‘s what we were told. Right at the reception. That‘s their handwritten note." 

Krillin took the paper from the girl‘s hand, when she loosened her grip, she slightly touched Krillin‘s hand with her soft, porcelain skin. 

„I- I- I- I-..." Krillin stammered, caught in endless repetition when Kakarot slapped him at the back of his head, making him snap out of it. „I can show you the facilities. Uhm, there had been some changes… just a week… ago." Krillin grew suspicious, since he already wondered why they would change a running system but Vegeta insisted that this room setup would make more sense. The small confused man was looking for him, but he was nowhere to find, only some muffked punching sounds emanated from the storage.

„So, like now? Or do you like to chit-chat some more nonsense?" The boy snapped.

„Yes, yes! I‘m coming!" The siblings turned around, walking down the hallway. „Goku," Krillin started to whisper, „When you see Vegeta, can you say him ‚Thank you‘? I gotta go!" he turned on his heels, running after the cold queen. 

„Uh yeah sure, buddy!" Kakarot called after Krillin. He then went back to his workspace, waiting for Vegeta to come back from his time out.

__________

  
  


After half an hour, Vegeta came back from the storage, visibly relaxed from his punching session. Kakarot was a moron but this fucking punching bag was a glorious idea. He should talk to the women to set up a trainings room for the team, so they could compensate sitting most of the time throughout the day.

„Hey Geeta! Krillin told me to say thank you!" Kakarot cheered.

„What for?" Vegeta asked cluelessly.

„I- uhhh.. that‘s a really good question, buddy. He didn‘t tell me that."

Vegeta could barely hide his evil grin when he said, „How about you look for him and ask him? Maybe he‘s in the dining hall. You should check there."

„Dining hall, right! Off I go!" Kakarot zoomed out the door to the dining hall.

This was way too easy. He could tell him everything and he’d just do it. Good luck finding Krillin there.

__________

  
  


With Kakarot and Krillin gone, Piccolo, Tien and Vegeta had to work on the people that came in for the next shift this day. 

Vegeta trained hard for this evening. Even though he focused on perfecting the woman‘s makeup, he still knew the drill for the other looks too. He had to, in the case someone would drop out, which technically just happened with Goku and Krillin.

The businesses of the two lost coworkers could probably take some time.

Piccolo already finished his last makeup, starting to clean off his place, also collecting the supplies of the other two, while Tien and Vegeta worked on the remaining people. 

It was already about two, when Tien drew the last red eyeline, turning to the last man standing, when the door opened, „Oh, hey Bulma! How‘s everything going?"

„Hi guys! Everything‘s fine so far. Hasn‘t your team been bigger before? Where‘re Goku and Krillin?" she asked, leaning her elbow on Vegeta‘s shoulder.

„Not, that it‘s any of your business but they probably left because they heard you‘d come soon." Vegeta said with a challenging smirk on his lips.

„Or maybe you told them they shall leave beforehand," she leaned down right to his ear, whispering, „...so you can have me all on your own, spiky boy."

„That’s it. My ears are too good to stay and listen to you coquetting with each other." Piccolo finished off what he had in his hand, leaving the studio as fast as possible. „Let this guy off the hook, Tien, he looks good. Come on."

Tien grabbed the fixing spray, setting the man’s face in front of him, jumping from his chair, joining Piccolo in leaving for anywhere else but here.

„Wow, did I stroke a nerve? Be honest, you planned this." Bulma asked suspiciously, tapping with her fingers on Vegeta‘s shoulder.

„I organized a lot these days but this was not part of it."

„Oh yeah? What else did you organize?"

„Did you come here for gossip or do we want to start doing your makeup?" he spat in annoyance.

„Okay, okay! Don‘t you lose your sunny temper, Spike." she sat down in an instant.

Vegeta stood up, gathering the box he prepared for the heiress. It was filled with several skin care and base products, several brushes and, of course, eyeshadow palettes. He checked twice if he had everything he needed, then grabbed another serum he just saw on the shelf. Krillin just ordered it start of the week, so he was curious how it would work on the woman‘s face. Fuck working on the routine. He was confident enough to substitute that one thing without destroying their efforts.

__________

Her base was flawless. Her skin was already close to perfection, so he just had to correct a few red spots and more importantly, care for her skin with the bunch of moisturizers and essences he picked from their storage. The new serum really brought out the glow even more. He didn‘t know that this was even possible but it really made a difference. With such a healthy base, it was even easier to apply the complexion products. The brush glided over her skin without any effort, distributing the foundation evenly. Just as he wanted to add the finishing touch, the brush already touching her cheek, the door opened with a loud bang.

„Geeta!" Kakarot blared, making Vegeta twitch and draw an unintended line over her face. 

„Holy shit you fucktarte! Don‘t you ever burst in again when people are working here!" he snapped back, looking at the woman in fear. „You can be glad that I‘m only finishing off the base and was not working on her fucking eye makeup. Else you‘d be dead now!"

„Sorry, buddy. I just came to thank you." Kakarot said, slightly embarrassed he almost caused chaos. 

„Congratulations. So, you found Krillin? Did he tell you what to thank me for?"

„No. I mean, _I_ wanted to thank you." he said with sincerity in his voice.

Vegeta turned around slowly, leaning over the back of his chair. The woman perked up, visibly curious about what was about to come.

„And what would that be for? I mean, I‘m awesome in general, I get it. But I already told Krillin: I‘m flattered, but don‘t flirt with me."

„Krillin flirted with you?" the woman giggled, „I mean, you‘re a piece of cake but wow."

„Woman, cut it." he narrowed his eyes, giving her a deadly glare, but his face covered in embarrassment.

„He is here." Kakarot went without reacting at their bickering.

„Your… common sense? Took a while, I‘m glad it came back." he said dryly, refocus on the woman in front of him.

„My brother."

The woman leaned to the left, so she could see Kakarot without Vegeta being in her sight, "You have a brother??? You never told me, Goku!"

„I didn‘t know! Actually, Vegeta was the one telling me about him."

"It was just a possibility, so I told you. Nothing more."

„But he‘s here today! Don‘t you tell me you have nothing to do with that!"

„Just a coincidence. I worked at the same event planner as him, so no surprise they invited the same company again. That‘s how I got here, if you remember."

„So… you didn‘t..?"

„Like I said." Vegeta took a loaded powder brush, setting the base on the woman‘s face, who was still eyeing the two men talking in disbelief. „Instead of wasting your time discussing literally nothing here, you should plan your vacation on planet Vegeta with your family."

„Oh! You rite! Thanks Geeta! Whatever you did - or not - Thank you!" Kakarot turned on his heel, running out the studio.

It was silent while Vegeta bronzed the woman‘s face, her eyes fixed on the spiky man, quirking an eyebrow."

„What?" he snapped at her.

„Didn‘t you recommend that company to me?" she asked him, catching him off guard.

„If you tell anyone, I swear, they‘ll have to look for another CC heiress." he threatened her with his brush pointing at her.

She laid a hand on his knee, slightly squeezing, „Big softie."

„Shut up."

She giggled.

„So," she started again, „Planet Spiky Boy, huh? What‘s up with that?"

„That‘s a long story." he said, reaching out for the eye cosmetics.

„I didn‘t plan to leave so soon."

Well, they were indeed, stuck here for the next hour or so, finishing her makeup. So he could also just tell he what‘s it about. 

__________

  
  


„Flawless, as always." she said, checking herself out in the mirror.

„Do you talk about yourself...or..?"

„Aww! Did you just call me flawless?"

„No, I meant- that you- I mean your overconfidence-"

„Yes, I am quite aware, that I‘m fabulous, thanks for noticing. Love you too, hun." she turned back to the mirror, fixing a stray hair by curling it back up into her wild mane.

What did she just say? Was she always so loose with such words? Or didn‘t they just mean anything to her? He would never dare to tell her something like that so easily. Not that he actually did have such feelings at all but he meant in general. How would he actually describe her feelings towards her? Tolerance? Maybe respect? Or just resignation? He couldn‘t deny that him fighting with her about everything became less and less present. 

Yeah. Probably resignation.

„Hello? Earth to Planet Spiky Boy. You there?" he came back to senses to a waving hand in front of his face.

„Woman, what the hell?" he pushed away her hand.

„Oh, good. You‘re okay. I was worried for a solid minute."

She reached out for his hand, starting to walk to the door, when he decided to stop her, „Where do you think you‘re taking me?"

„Maybe I take you to a dark corner, rip away your shirt and dig my teeth into your skin."

He couldn‘t bring himself to reply anything to this, he was too startled with embarrassment. Clenching his teeth, he looked to the ground, not able to look her in the eyes, when she went on to walk before him, still holding his hand in her grasp.

„Just relax, you will like it." she looked over her shoulder, winking at him.

What was she doing? What was HE doing? Just leave, this can‘t be good. This won‘t be good. But all he felt was the tingle in his hand, making him numb, unable to react.

__________

He looked down to his clothes spread on the floor. He couldn‘t believe this was happening. 

„How do you like it?" he heard her voice whisper in his ear.

„Would you fucking NOT do that? I‘m tryin to bind a windsor here!" he angrily pulled at his tie, having to redo it AGAIN because the woman was disturbing him with vulgarity AGAIN. „Vulgar woman."

„Oh, come on! You just have a dirty mind yourself! Else you wouldn‘t be triggered by every word I say."

„You literally said you‘d dig your teeth into my skin! How am i supposed to get that wrong?"

„Huh. Okay, I guess THIS part was a liiittle exaggerated. But you don‘t have your shirt on you anymore!"

„Yes, because I took it off to squeeze myself into this ridiculous suit you forced me to."

„You have such an unique way of saying ‚thank you‘ to someone making you a present."

„Tch. Thank you?"

„You‘re welcome!"

He turned around slowly, throwing a deadly glare in her direction, „Don‘t overdo it."

„Okay, okay! I‘m sorry."

He finally had a quiet minute to bind his tie correctly. He pushed the knot up and sticked the end into his button up. After grabbing his jacket, he offered her his elbow to hold onto.

„Nervous?" he asked without looking at her.

„Not at all. I was born for this." he felt her eyes being fixated on him, „You?"

"I hate people." the tension in his arm rose when her second hand joined his forearm, making him release a deep breath.

„Don‘t worry. If they get too close, I‘ll punch them!" He looked at her in a instant, his face covered in surprise. This was ridiculous. He still couldn‘t hold back the soft chuckle that came from his chest.

„Let‘s go." 

__________

  
  


The way she stood there on the stage, Vegeta could really tell that she was born for this. Her words made every man and woman in this room fixing their eyes on her. Shining bright like the rarest gem in existence. She was stunning. And today, also her appearance was reflecting her inner beauty, not like last time. 

When her speech came to an end, the audience applauded without restraint, filling the hall with loud, steady noises sounding like breaking waves. She leaned forward to the microphone, adding something she seemed he had almost forgotten but Vegeta couldn’t quite make it out, his ears ringing from the blaring sound.

That moment Bulma walked down the stage towards him, taking his hand with a gleam in her eyes, he was almost blinded. He then felt himself moving, still in the grasp of that stunning woman he couldn’t stop looking at. And before he could realise what happened, he was already on the stage. He hated this. He didn’t want all the attention being on him. But of all the feelings he should feel right now, hate, anger, embarrassment, he could only feel her hand in his. 

His head was still filled with white noise, so he only recognized her voice in a muffled sound. The only thing he could still sense perfectly fine, was the bright light blinding and scorching him. He decided to not look in the direction of it anymore, so he tried to concentrate on the woman next to him, when it hit him.

He had never seen such a divine creature before. He never even believed that anything like that existed at all. But she stood right there, next to him. Her skin was so full of life, so luminous, it was as if her skin was almost translucent, consisting of pure light. 

And then he finally understood. He didn’t know before. He never really cared. It was always just a job, nothing more. Something that had to be done to keep up his lifestyle. But now it wasn’t anymore. And he knew what needed to be done. What he had to do. What was best for everyone.

_________

  
  


She enjoyed every moment of this evening. Not only the stagelife was her destiny. After that she chatted with probably everyone in this fucking overcrowded hall. And he knew that because she decided to not let him leave her side for even a minute. He could’ve faked that he had to use the bathroom, or that he was having a stroke, but his pride didn’t let him lie for a minor inconvenience. 

This also probably was the last evening they spent like this. So he could at least get a hold of himself and give her that evening.

He finally met the last person at this event. There were like five Matts, three Marcs, a bunch of Sarahs, one Cecelia, too many fucking names that cluttered his brain. It will take him years to get rid of such trivial knowledge about all of these people. His memory never failed him. Sadly, not even when he needed it. 

Later that night, they even saw Krillin spending his time with the Ice Queen at the bar, having the time of their life sharing their drinks, laughing with each other and her whispering in his ear, making his face illuminate with the brightest red up to his ears. Good for him. The girl still creeped the hell out of him but if he liked being intimidated, good for him.

At last they could raid the buffet. Vegeta almost worried that everything would be gone by know but the woman assured him, even if there wasn’t anything left, she’d just ordered a fresh batch from the cooks. Lush life of a multi-million-dollar heiress. But there still was plenty, besides a ton of empty dishes, so they got themselves a bit of everything, spreading everything on a table nearby to finally still their hunger. 

Vegeta actually expected to find Kakarot and Raditz here. Looking at the empty pans, he was sure that they‘ve been here before. Else there would‘ve been less chaos here and even more food. Not that he actually wanted to see them. He really hated people showing off emotions in public, so he was quite relieved they weren‘t here. 

So there was finally time for indulging into luxury. 

Food was devoured, drinks were downed. Laughter was shared, eyes have met. The time flew by. And without realising it, two souls found themselves alone in the big hall.

"I’m sorry I dragged you along this whole evening. You probably couldn’t care less about meeting these bootlickers." She said with a soft chuckle while she grabbed another glass of, what Vegeta thought, was champagne. 

"You’re right, I couldn’t." He took the glass from her, downing it in one. She already had double the amount of what Vegeta had. If she wanted to remember this evening at all, she should stop here, he thought. 

She looked at him with big, glassy eyes. The moment he noticed it, she hastily grabbed one of the hors d'oeuvres still laying on his plate, obviously trying to avoid his gaze. He wasn’t finished with his food yet but he would not complain about her sneaking food that basically was her property. 

"Anyways, thanks for dealing with me today. Everyone else probably would’ve…" 

"I quit." Vegeta cut her off. 

The sudden silence filling the room was deafening. When he thought the white noise would have had made him crazy earlier that day, this was worse. She just stared at him in utter shock. Vegeta took a deep breath a few times but he never made a move to say something. 

Only the buzzing of the lights that were left, dared to intrude their heads. 

"Oh.. uhm. Okay. I guess it WAS a bit much today, wasn’t it?" She finally broke the silence. But Vegeta couldn’t think of anything he could reply to this. "That bad, huh?" Bulma poked with her fork in her leftover food, not daring to look at him. 

How would he be able to explain? Did it even matter? His thoughts spun back and forth. He should say something. Anything at least! But all he could think of was her beautiful face, now covered in disappointment. Her glow from earlier was gone. And it was his fault.

"When will you leave?" She managed to say, trying to hide the tremble in her voice.

"I.." Vegeta started but the words built a dry lump in his throat, keeping him from talking.

The fuck, man! Grow some balls and SAY FUCKING ANYTHING. This is your fucking LAST CHANCE! 

He couldn’t.

And she wasn't going to wait the whole night for some half-heartedly excuses of why this was happening. 

She couldn’t. 

She raised herself from the chair. Just as he thought she would leave without a word, she said in defeat, "Well, just let me know when it will be. I’ll hire some assistants to help wrap your stuff together." Bulma turned around and moved away from him.

"No," the only word he managed to say. The woman stopped on her feet, turning around slowly. Her arms were slung around her waist. 

"What did you say?" Her eyes were fixed on him. He didn’t know if he could stay strong when she looked at him like this. But he started already. So why not as well close the case. 

"I said ‘no’." As he returned her gaze, she almost seemed to shiver, making her mute for mere seconds that felt like infinity. 

"You…" her voice began to tremble. Please, don’t. Anything but this. 

"You ungrateful FUCK!" Vegeta flinched as Bulma suddenly raised her voice against him. "So this is how you repay me? I gave you a life in extravagance, basically for free and even PAID YOU more than everyone else said you’d be worth and now on my final act of kindness towards you, you decide to REJECT?! What is this? Some manly pride issue or anything? All this time it was okay that I did fucking everything for you but THAT is too much, or what? What the hell are you.."

"I don’t want to leave." He interrupted her rant. Confusion was written on her face. 

"Uh.. I’m sorry but didn’t you say you wanted to quit?" She asked to reassure herself. 

"Yes. But I don’t want to leave."

A soft chuckle left her chest, transforming into blaring laughter as its intensity grew, "So you don’t wanna work anymore but you think that you can actually go on living a lush life in Capsule Corp or what?" She wiped a tear from her eye.

"Holy shit, woman, are you even listening? I mean that I don’t want to leave YOU!" He pushed himself from his chair, nevously walking around.

His words echoed in his own mind, making him dizzy. Now it was out. Sounding like a despicable weakling not wanting to leave a fucking female that had him in her grasp. So tight, that he couldn’t breathe every time she was around. 

"But.. I don’t understand. Why do you quit if you don’t want to leave?" Bulma asked in visible confusion.

Vegeta pinched the bridge of his nose, squinting his eyes, "Why the hell is that so damn hard to understand?! I don’t want you to be my BOSS, okay?!" He sounded more and more angry and she still didn’t seem to grasp the concept he was trying to explain to her. 

"Oh. So it IS some weird fragile masculinity shit with having a woman as your boss?" Bulma rolled her eyes, not noticing how Vegeta moved forward, grabbing the fabric around her collar, pulling her towards him.

"I swear to fucking Kami, I had fucking killed you by now, if I didn’t LIKE YOU that much!" Bulma widened her eyes as she finally began to understand what this angry boy tried to tell her, while he went on ranting. "How can someone as intelligent as you be so fucking stupid when it comes to interpersonal matters? It’s as if you worked your whole life in your dark lab without any contact to other human beings, your best friend being a fucking toaster or something, otherwise nothing could explain your extremely impertinent…" 

Suddenly the woman pulled at his button-down collar, cutting off Vegeta’s tirade that could’ve gone endless if no one stopped him. He already braced himself for her counterstrike but instead of screaming back at him, she pulled him even closer so both their lips were sealed with each other’s.

He stared at her in disbelief, at how soft her lips felt on his. Was this reality? Maybe he was just dreaming or he had a seizure on the stage because of all those noises and lights and he was in the hospital on the railroad to hell. Or this was actually happening and he had a wonderful woman in front of him, who was pressing her strawberry lips against his.

He finally gave in and closed his eyes, laying his hands around her neck.

After a long moment of finding each other, they finally parted. Vegeta breathed heavily, noticing how their kiss removed the perfection from her makeup, smeared lipstick, patchy foundation and hot red cheeks. But even with all of these imperfections, she‘d never looked more beautiful.

"What… what does that mean?" He said, his fingers intertwining with hers. 

"Oh boy, you really have some nerves to call me stupid for not understanding what your stammering meant while you don’t understand when someone allows you to play with their tongue."

Vegeta’s face turned crimson red with her vulgar description of the intimate moment they shared just mere seconds ago. "I meant, and now listen the fuck up, … what this means for us." Vegeta looked away, too embarrassed to talk about such things. He wasn’t a man of many words. He prefered to just take action and let them explain everything. This wasn’t going to work here. Hell, it never worked before, if he was being honest.

But he never wanted anything more in his life than this woman. He was in desperate need of her. So fuck it, he was going to try it this way. 

Bulma giggled at the view of a visible torn Vegeta. He always looked uncomfortable in any situation. But he always hated everything openly with a confidence, so she couldn’t believe he was now so insecure and embarrassed to actually have to communicate emotions altering from his normal spectrum.

"It means, that I like you too, spiky boy." She leaned forward to gently kiss his cheek, noticing his tension wore down a little. 

"I might not be good at reading other people’s mind but I kinda figured." She smiled at him. So fondly, he can‘t remember anybody ever looking at him this way. His heart was going to burst to this sight every moment. 

"So, now that we cleared things up, you don't have to quit anymore!", Bulma said gleefully, clapping her hands together. 

Vegeta was considering her words, almost carried away by her carefree cheering. But his decision stayed the same. "I'm sorry but I have to. This isn't right." 

"Well, I can't be mad. This is probably going to get complicated. I mean, having a relationship to someone you work with can be hard. I see why you want to get another job." her smile changed to a melancholic mood. She wasn't as hurt as before but she was obviously not pleased with how things turned out. 

"I fucking don't! I love doing this stuff! I love thinking of color concepts, I love kicking Kakarots butt when he tries to use fucking orange AGAIN, I love when everything turns out perfect in the end and I love…" he stopped for a moment, thinking about his choice of words, "... working with you."

Bulma was looking to the floor. She stayed silent for a minute, taking his hand into hers, intertwining their fingers, "But why would you end it then?" 

His hand squeezed hers tight, pulling her a step closer so they could feel each others heat radiating from their bodies, "I don't want it to end. I want it to change. I can't stay here working for you. I want to stay here as your partner, Bulma." the woman in front of him perked up, looking up from their hands right into his eyes. A glimmer of hope colored her face. "I don't know how we can do this, or if this is going to work out at all in the end. But I am willing to try everything to make this work. All you have to do, is to want it too." 

Vegeta's voice always had a harshness to it. But this time it sounded different. Rather filled with annoyance, it was filled with determination. And who was she to deny his efforts? She finally spoke, "Yes, I do." 

".... Could you probably make it sound less… Official?" 

She giggled. Teasing him was too much fun than just stop it right away. But she could work on it. 

Perhaps.

"Okay!" she took a step backwards, straightened her back and extending her hand to him, "Deal!"

Vegeta looked down to her hand for a moment, remembering their first encounter and how he had no idea that everything would change for him in just a couple of months. Just how annoying she was to him. He wouldn't believe it when someone had told him. But he couldn't be happier. 

He took her hand, shaking it gently, "Deal."

Suddenly, the woman began to squeal like a little schoolgirl swooning over some superstar. She took a leap and flinged her arms around his neck, kissing him all over his face until he stopped her with finally placing his lips on hers. 

Whatever this was and however this was going to turn out, they would find it out. 

Together. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is my first ever posted and finished fanfic! I really hope you liked it and I thank you very much for your support! No matter if you left kudos, comments or just read the think! It really means a bunch!
> 
> Next I plan to post a smutty oneshot so I hope to see a few of you again! 
> 
> Until then, have a nice one!


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